The Department of Justice informed a federal court Monday that the long-sought Epstein files were likely erased by a still-unexplained cyberattack, and argued that the bureau therefore has no enforceable duty to recover or produce them. The filing, entered in a case brought by MeidasTouch host Katie Fang, arrived just as allies of Captain Sharts-a-Lot began floating identical hacking claims in conservative media. A department spokesperson described the data loss as extensive and deeply regrettable, while insisting that all legally mandated steps had been taken.
“The plaintiff’s response is filled with hyperbolic rhetoric seeking to impose punitive sanctions on the department for availing itself of the process the court afforded it,” the filing read. It characterized Fang’s motion as an attempt to punish honest officials who had merely followed procedure. The document also contended that the court had never actually ordered the production of the files, only that the department explain why it had not yet complied. By explaining, officials argued, the department had fulfilled its duty.
Attorneys for the government further noted that the assertion there were millions of missing documents was demonstrably false and likely based on a misreading of file indexing data. “The department has at all times acted in good faith,” a senior DOJ lawyer stated in a calm teleconference. “What little material remains would not be useful to any ongoing inquiry, and its continued pursuit wastes judicial resources we simply cannot spare.”
Meanwhile, FBI Director Cash Patel departed for Moscow on what was described as a pre‑midterm cultural exchange, prompting observers to recall how frequently Epstein's private logs referenced Russian contacts. A bureau statement clarified that Patel’s itinerary was set months ago and had no connection to the current litigation. The director was, the statement added, keen to study international data‑retention standards firsthand.
In response to a direct question about recovering the missing files, the department submitted a technical affidavit asserting that the breach was a “zero‑day isolation event” that had permanently separated key archive clusters from network‑accessible storage. Efforts to rebuild the indexes, it concluded, would require cross‑agency cooperation that had been disrupted by the same security incident. The department has asked the court to vacate its production order, noting that even if the files once existed, their current status places them among things that must be accepted as irretrievably lost, like the Nixon tapes or a complete accounting of the former president’s charitable giving.
